The Big Picture on School Costs

(formerly entitled:For Further Discussion On School Size)
by Representative David Cox

The discussion about school size, both with school boards and in the general public, will not be complete without considering the ancillary costs of big schools. These are harder to quantify than the capital and staffing costs of additional smaller schools. If these costs and liabilities are not considered, a shallow look could conclude that schools should be built bigger yet.

Direct costs to Districts

• Smaller schools that are closer to the neighborhood have less ongoing transportation costs. These costs can be significant in big schools that collect students from all over a metropolitan area and they continue year after year. Buses also begin to rule the schedule when significant numbers of students are being bused throughout the city rather than just collecting rural students.
• Schools with large populations in portable units have much higher heating and cooling costs.
• Smaller schools have not needed policemen, surveillance systems, etc. and appear to be much safer.
• While smaller schools will each need a principal, secretary, etc., bigger schools need more assistant principals and other staff. Those staffing needs should be considered as well in comparisons.

Costs to the community for which the School District is not liable

• Since most patrons choose to drive to school, large schools have significantly larger traffic impacts near these schools. Large schools concentrate traffic. Smaller schools throughout the community tend to have more students walking and spread out the traffic.
• Smaller schools throughout the community create open space and recreation areas for citizens so that the city does not need to tax for those separately. They provide meeting places for local needs. They create community amidst sprawl.
• Large schools have more truancy, drug abuse, and gang problems. These societal problems then impact the community.
• There is also a greater need for the city to provide more recreation programs since only the top students of large schools are able to participate in school programs.

Small Schools Offer Real Hope For Communities Of Color

America's urban high schools are struggling
by Dr. Augusta Souza Kappner

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Dr. Kappner has been president of Bank Street College in New York City since 1995, and was the assistant secretary for Vocational and Adult Education for the U.S. Department of Education from 1993 to 1995.

Not long ago, I traveled to Seattle to join a group of multicultural scholars and practitioners and the nation's leading small schools (K- 12) scholars. We were meeting to discuss the potential benefits of small schools reform for minority communities. On at least one point we were unanimous: for urban centers and communities of color, most high schools are failing.

The news out of our high schools is bleak: - High dropout rates continue to plague communities of color. -African-American and Latino students are retained (required to repeat a grade) at alarming rates. -Students of color continue to trail their peers on achievement indicators.

Leaders, both within and outside minority communities, have been searching desperately for answers. But surprisingly - at least from my perspective - few have embraced a strategy that offers a tremendous amount of promise: small schools reform.

Small schools work. And they appear to work particularly well with disadvantaged students. Last year, Bank Street College of Education's study, Small Schools: Great Strides, chronicled the success of small schools reform in numerous Chicago public schools. The average school size nationwide is 741 students, and it is not uncommon for urban children to attend elementary schools with more than 1,000 students and high schools with 3,000 students. By contrast, small schools in the Bank Street study enrolled between 200 to 400 students. The difference between the small schools we examined and their larger counterparts was striking.

We found that smaller learning communities diminish school violence, raise academic engagement and performance, and increase attendance and graduation rates - the very issues with which minority communities across the nation are grappling. Our research affirms the mounting mass of evidence of those who have studied small schools over the past decade. Most promising, small schools reform works within a public school framework - an important fact for leaders of color given that approximately 95% of African American and 91% of Latino students currently attend public schools.

Why are there not more leaders from communities of color championing small schools efforts? Why do we allow communities to continue to build the sort of gigantic schools that breed alienation and low expectations? I believe that information about the value of small schools has simply not reached a broad enough audience. A just- released survey from Public Agenda confirms that the majority of America's parents and teachers do not place school size high on their lists of educational concerns. Small school reformers are now recognizing the need to reach out to leaders in communities of color and welcome them into small schools efforts.

I recognize the honest concerns some have about small schools. Many fear small schools may be prohibitively expensive. Some others - many from African American or other underserved communities - worry that overly sympathetic teachers in highly personalized learning environments, in recognizing the disadvantages faced by their students, may not hold students to sufficiently high standards of achievement.

The evidence gives us confidence that these concerns can be surmounted by a thoughtful, coherent and diligent approach to the creation of small schools. We have seen that small schools can be affordable for even the poorest communities. (Research by Fruchter, Stiefel et al. shows that the cost per graduate is actually lower in small schools than in large.) We have found that most small schools hold high expectations for their students. Small school populations, like large school populations, generally reflect the ethnic makeup of the communities they serve; where integration is the goal, small schools are often more likely to be able to achieve diverse populations. In systems that establish clear, progressive guidelines, small schools are actually less likely to be segregated than are larger schools.

Interestingly, some minority leaders have recently spoken out in favor of charter schools and voucher plans. Their explanation has been not so much an embrace of these strategies as a rejection of the status quo. The frustration they feel with the ongoing failure of our urban public schools to adequately serve students of color is certainly understandable. But what is needed now is not an abandonment of public schools but rather a commitment to establishing more effective - and smaller - learning communities.

Leaders of color should endorse the small schools movement - within public school systems - because small schools offer the potential for quality education, provide educational opportunities, and foster academic and social success. Small schools may well provide an answer to much of what ails today's most difficult-to-reform educational systems. Consequently, now is the time for leaders of color to propel this movement forward.

School Size

By Karen Irmsher

There is a natural predeliction in American education toward enormity," said William Fowler (1992), "and it does not serve schools well."

During the last forty years, schools with thousands of students have become common. Among these are countless consolidations of small rural schools.

Many researchers trace the large-school trend back to a book written in 1967 by James Bryant Conant, then president of Harvard. In it, he concluded that larger schools (over 750 students) can offer more comprehensive instructional programs of greater quality at lower costs than smaller schools.

At that time, Craig Howley (1994) notes, middle-class students predominated in large urban schools. Since then, residential patterns have changed, overburdening large innercity schools with impoverished students and all the dysfunction they bring.

For decades few educators questioned these notions, but now the tide is turning. This Digest summarizes some recent research findings related to school size.

Have Larger Schools Produced Greater Academic Success at a Lower Cost?

In short, the answer is no, but with one qualification: Howley (1994) reports evidence that students in high socioeconomic status communities perform better in larger schools. Small size seems to benefit minority and low-income students more than middle- and upper-class students, say Valerie E. Lee and Julia B. Smith 1996. Many of the nation's largest high schools are in urban areas having high concentrations of disadvantaged students, who are ill served by large school size.

Michael Klonsky (1995), Mary Anne Raywid (1995), and others report that large school size hurts attendance and dampens enthusiasm for involvement in school activities. Large schools have lower grade averages and standardized-test scores coupled with higher dropout rates and more problems with violence, security, and drug abuse.

Lee and Smith (1996) found that savings projected by proponents of school consolidation have not materialized. Instead of long-assumed economies of scale, they discovered diseconomies, or penalties of scale. Large schools need more layers of support and administrative staff to handle the increased bureaucratic demands.

It is also important to consider how costs-per-student are calculated. Standard operating costs are usually computed by dividing the total amount spent by the number of students enrolled. But when cost-effectiveness judgments are based instead on the figure derived by dividing dollars spent by number of students graduating, the results are entirely different.

Fowler and others found that although large schools offer greater curricular variety, only a small percentage of students take advantage of advanced and alternative classes.

Large schools offer more specialized programs for disadvantaged and disabled youth, but students in these programs are more likely to feel cut off from the school culture. In fact, in large schools social stratification is the norm. Athletic and academic stars reap the benefits of daily close contact with adults. However, the other 70 to 80 percent of students belong to social groups that include no adults (Deborah Meier 1995).

Large schools function more like bureaucracies, small schools more like communities. Klonsky concludes that large schools generally "correlate with inefficiency, institutional bureaucracy, and personal loneliness."

In What Respects Are Small Schools More Beneficial?

A higher percentage of students, across all socioeconomic levels, are successful when they are part of smaller, more intimate learning communities. Females, nonwhites, and special-needs students, whether at risk, gifted, exceptional, or disadvantaged, are all better served by small schools. Security improves and violence decreases, as does student alcohol and drug abuse.

Small school size encourages teachers to innovate and students to participate, resulting in greater commitment for both groups. More positive attitudes and greater satisfaction are reflected in higher grades and test scores, improved attendance rates, and lowered dropout rates.

Deborah Meier (1996) cites seven reasons why schools of 300 to 400 students work best.

1. Governance. Communication is easier when the whole staff can meet around one common table.
2. Respect. Students and teachers get to know each other well.
3. Simplicity. Less bureacracy makes it easier to individualize.
4. Safety. Strangers are easily spotted and teachers can respond quickly to rudeness or frustration.
5. Parent involvement. Parents are more likely to form alliances with teachers who know their child and care about his or her progress.
6. Accountability. No one needs bureaucratic data to find out how a student, a teacher, or the school is doing. Everyone knows.
7. Belonging. Every student, not just the academic and athletic stars, is part of a community that contains adults.

"Relationships are cross-disciplinary, cross-generational, and cross everything else," notes Meier (1996). "Kids don't just know the adults they naturally like, or the ones who naturally like them. They may hate some grown-ups and love others, but they recognize everyone as members of the same human club."

Does Size Alone Make a Major Difference?

Downsizing cannot, by itself, guarantee that school transformation will unfold or that marvelous teacher and student performance will occur. Change is always difficult, especially when top-down mandates force teachers to make changes for which they are not adequately prepared. Or when teachers are asked to work double time, operating within their old system while creating a new one.

Meier, Raywid, and others agree that small schools have the best chance at success when they are permitted to become separate, autonomous, distinctive entities with a well-defined culture. Other factors influencing success included curricula developed around a theme or focus; tendency toward collaborative governance; voluntary participation of teachers and students; and collaboration with organizations and agencies outside the school.

"The benefits sought by downsizing efforts," states Raywid (1995), "appear contingent upon the ability of the subunits or subschools to establish a collective identity, projecting clear, identifiable boundaries and displaying perceptible differences-palpable to students-from whatever lies beyond those boundaries."

Is There an Optimal School Size?

Despite widespread agreement that the scale of most schools is too large, prescriptions for ideal size vary. Fowler, Howley, and others consider the potential for curricular adequacy to be reached at 400 students. Meier defines small schools as enrolling 300 to 400 students. Lee and Smith conclude that high school students learn best when enrollment is between 600 and 900.

A joint policy statement issued by the Carnegie Foundation and the National Associaton of Secondary School Principals recommended that high schools break into units of no more than 600 students.

None recommend fewer than 300 or more than 900 students. Howley (1996) suggests that "the most suitable size is likely to vary from place to place," with a community's relative poverty or affluence being a major factor. Small schools clearly provide an achievement advantage for impoverished students, while affluent students may fare better in larger schools.

How Can Districts Better Utilize Their Existing Large School Buildings?

Putting several small schools into an existing large school building can rejuvenate the school and enhance educational possibilities. Raywid and Meier both reported that doing so has typically resulted in great benefits for students, teachers, parents, and the entire school community. Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and many other cities have already instituted major restructuring efforts aimed at housing small schools in existing large buildings.

Many see schools-within-schools as a crucial first step in restructuring, states Raywid. But, she notes, when creating new schools it is important to resist grouping students by ability or achievement. Divisiveness and conflicts are also minimized if all the schools in the building are small schools, rather than one small school sharing space with a mainstream large school.

Schools that transitioned most successfully have been based on the principles of cohesion, autonomy, focus or theme, and a constituency assembled on the basis of shared interests. While the reasons for downsizing failures are still sketchy, reports usually cite one of three shortcomings: insufficient faithfulness to the small-school concept, insufficient autonomy and separateness, or failure to couple changes in the school culture with the structural changes.

RESOURCES

Fowler, William J., Jr. "What Do We Know About School Size? What Should We Know?" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April 22, 1992. 21 pages. ED347 675.

Howley, Craig. The Academic Effectiveness of Small-Scale Schooling (An Update). ERIC Digest. Charleston, West Virginia: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, June 1994. ED372 897.

___________. Ongoing Dilemmas of School Size: A Short Story. Charleston, West Virginia: ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, December 1996. ED401 089.

Klonsky, Michael. Small Schools: The Numbers Tell a Story. A Review of the Research and Current Experiences. Chicago: University of Illinois, College of Education, 1995. 24 pages. ED 386 517.

Lee, Valerie E., and Julie B. Smith. "High School Size: Which Works Best, and for Whom?" Draft. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, April 1996. 51 pages. ED396 888.

Meier, Deborah W. "Small Schools, Big Results." The American School Board Journal 182, 7 (July 1995): 37-40. EJ506 543.

__________. "The Big Benefits of Smallness." Educational Leadership 54, 1 (September 1996): 12-15.
Raywid, Mary Anne. Taking Stock: The Movement to Create Mini-Schools, Schools-Within-Schools, and Separate Small Schools. Madison, Wisconsin: Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools, and New York: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, April 1996. 72 pages. ED393 958.

__________. "The Subschools/Small Schools Movement- Taking Stock." Paper commissioned by the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools. December 1995.

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This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract No. OERI RR93002006. The ideas and opinions expressed in this Digest do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI, ED, or the Clearinghouse. This Digest is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced.

Ordering Information: Single paper copies of this ERIC Digest are available from the Clearinghouse while supplies last. Although there is no charge for the materials themselves, a postage/handling fee of $3.00 is required to cover the Clearinghouse's expenses. This fee is waived if (1) you enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope or (2) you order other materials for which there is a charge. Send orders for paper copies to the ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, 5207 University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-5207. Make checks payable to University of Oregon/ERIC.

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Some Findings About K-8 Schools

List member Keith Look is a researcher with the Philadelphia Education Fund. In this note to the MiddleWeb List (07/02), Keith shared some findings from his own experience and his dissertation research around the efficacy of K-8 schools.

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Hey Folks,

The K-8 vs. junior high/ middle school issue has been a major issue for me the past few years. I was part of a project that attempted to convert a large struggling urban middle school and its 4 feeder elementary schools into 5 K-8 schools. We faced issues of curricula, budget, neighborhood boundaries, staffing, etc. There were lots of lessons learned. In fact, this became my dissertation recently completed.

So along the way, I've got a bibliography if any of you would be interested, as well as a history of grade span configurations in the US and a conclusion chapter that highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of K-8 schools and making the conversion into the model. In addition, there was an early article I wrote along the way which can be read online at:

http://www.philaedfund.org/notebook/TheGreatK8Debate.htm (link no longer available)

Here are some highlights of what I've learned, experienced, etc:

1. K-8 schools may be a viable alternative to the large middle schools which struggle to be more than factory models of education
   
2. K-8 schools can enhance social capital and give at-risk students, in particular, greater opportunities at success by building relationships with staff over a course of nine years. This seems to be fueling, at least in part, the return of K-8 schools in urban and rural communities.
   
3. Parent involvement can improve because parents are usually happiest with their children's elementary school experiences, and therefore are more likely to stay involved in the children's school lives longer because they are already comfortable with the school and its staff AND because younger siblings/family enroll in the same bldg.
   
4. Middle grades students in a K-8 school behave differently than in a middle school. They take on the role of protector and role model as opposed to having to establish new reputations upon entering a middle school.
   
5. Absent from the Turning Points discussion, a K-8 school can incorporate a distinct, rigorous, and developmentally appropriate middle grades program within a K-8 grade span (one that includes all recommendations of Turning Points--both editions--from small learning environments to block scheduling, etc.).
   
6. Transitions to K-8 schools can enhance teacher collaboration and articulation within and across grades.
   
7. Internal accountability can increase in schools making the transition to K-8 b/c now teachers know personally who they are sending their children to next year, and middle grades teachers know who there students are coming from.
   
8. There's no substitute for effective leadership and good, committed teachers.
9. Districts have significant roles in supporting K-8 schools and conversions. In the district I worked with, major gaps in district-school alignment highlighted what could/should be done to support K-8 schools.
   

My personal OPINION is that K-8 schools are a better option than a large middle school in low-resource communities. It is not a silver bullet, but another option that may be considered in attempting to bring about successful, rigorous, and developmentally appropriate middle grades education.

The benefits ARE NOT automatically inherent in the model, but -- as in any school model -- in the process by which the benefits are pursued--so as to avoid stretching the elementary model through 8th grade or like a middle school where the high school model has been pulled down). K-8 may make some of the benefits more easily attained in comparison to certain models in certain communiites.

If there is information I can provide or stories you'd like to hear, let me know. It would be nice for me to think that this stack of paper I produced might be of use to someone somewhere.

-- keith look
klook@philaedfund.org

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MiddleWeb Conversations Index

Big Trouble: Solving Education Problems Means Rethinking Super-Sized Schools and Districts

by David N. Cox
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We Utahns love to have everything from our fast-food meals to our trucks "super-sized"; you might even say our families are "super-sized"! In many cases bigger is better, but not always. When it comes to schools and school districts, we as a nation have typically consolidated districts to make them larger under the assumption that bigger was better, specifically, more cost-effective with better academics. Yet several decades of super-size districts have called that notion into question for quality of services and even cost efficiency. Some districts might be too big, and might do better to DE-consolidate.

Over half of all students in Utah reside in only four of our forty districts. Our two largest districts, Jordan and Granite, have over 70,000 students each. Nationally we have about 14,800 school districts. Jordan, Granite, Davis, and Alpine are in the top 100 for size.

Many parents in giant school districts nation-wide are not happy with their schools. Those who can, demonstrate their displeasure by "voting with their feet" and moving their children into private schools. Robert W. Jewell found a strong correlation between non-Catholic private school enrollment and large district and school size. He states,"...the larger the districts and schools, the greater the non-Catholic private school enrollments among the states." Utah seems at present to be bucking the trend. We have the smallest percentage of private school enrollment of the states. Perhaps our larger family size has made that option too expensive. However, there is a growing segment of the electorate that are demanding vouchers and tuition tax-credits. If passed, these options would make it possible for many more to "opt-out".

Support for school choice is becoming almost a litmus test for the majority Republican Party here in Utah. Even a former Democratic State Party Chair is involved in the push. School administrators, who have stated their solid opposition, need to address the why, even if they win temporary battles now. Is the growing desire for private schools because our schools and districts have become too big?

Big Roots of Dissent

What root problem of public education has disaffected so many parents in the last twenty years that they want to place their children in private or charter schools?

Are poor test results causing parents' dissent? Test results can indicate that a problem exists, but they are not the problem itself. Some people suggest that declining test scores show that students today are not learning as well as they used to; others argue that the test results are being misinterpreted. Still others say that the tests themselves are not valid indicators of education progress. In any case, the test results themselves are not driving the school choice movement.

Is it curriculum? Utah has not yet had the math wars and reading wars that California and other states have had. That likelihood is becoming very real now that whole math and the latest version of whole language "balanced literacy" have been adopted by the state office. The constructivist philosophy of avoiding the discipline parts of learning (which include direct instruction of the basic skills of grammar, times tables, and phonics, etc.) is creating a division among parents and between teachers. Many parents and teachers want these taught directly but find it increasingly impossible to influence district and state curriculum committees. Intimidating statements like, "You don't want to be one of those 'drill and kill' teachers do you?" or "Don't let those old (experienced) teachers influence you as you begin teaching." or "You're the only one who has voiced this concern." are used to silence or isolate curriculum debate. This truly is alienating many would be friends of education.

Consider the debates over the teaching of evolution versus biblical creation of the early twentieth century, sex education, and many others. There have always been disagreements about curriculum, but people did not consider leaving public education over it. Regardless of what is done in the next twenty years, curriculum will still be an issue, as well it should be. Every generation needs to learn, focus, and decide what is of importance and how and to what degree it should be taught. Beliefs about curriculum, though very germane to the problem, have not caused the call to get rid of public education.

Are taxes driving the dissatisfaction with public schools? While Americans have protested taxes since before our nation was formed, in most every state and national poll for the last twenty years Americans have expressed support for increasing taxes IF it would improve schools. This sentiment opens the debates about where and how these funds should be spent, and whether more money improves schools at all. But the fact remains that many parents and citizens would be happy to pay much more for education if they had some control of it.


Control is the key. Who controls the quality, financing, and curriculum of our schools? While many citizens intuitively feel these decisions are best made by the parents and teachers of students in the local neighborhood, under our current system, for various reasons, the power to make those decisions rests in the hands of school boards and administrators who oversee increasingly large districts.

Big, how did we get there?

In 1900 there were more than 150,000 school districts in the United States. Single-school school districts were common. There were even some districts that were so small they employed only one teacher! As the assembly-line factory-model took hold in industry, the economies of scale began to be understood and applied in other settings such as schools. Utah had 380 districts until 1915 when they were consolidated into 39 and later the 40 districts we now have. After World War II there was a stronger push nationwide to consolidate school districts in rural areas. Many people were leaving agriculture for the city, resulting in less students and taxpayers for schools in rural areas. There were still about 128,000 districts in 1930, but by the end of the 60's that number had shrunk to 36,000. Today there are less than 15,000 school districts nationwide. During this time our cities were growing and with them their school districts. The net effect was fewer, bigger districts. We now have 24 districts with more than 100,000 students.

Parents in the middle of the century were convinced by administrators to allow consolidation of schools and districts for the economies of scale and for increased opportunities. Many moved to the city for the same reasons; school taxes would be less and schools would offer more because of a bigger base. At that time the diseconomies of scale (being too big) weren't even on the horizon because our cities and districts weren't as big as they are today. In 1959, J. B. Conant, in his report "The American High School Today," called for an increase in high school size to 400 students. Educational Research Service, 1971, referring to 26 studies completed between 1939 and 1969, stated that the most common recommendation for district size was 10,000, and that, "The decrease in the total number of school districts has been 85.9%....The job is, however, far from completed." indicating the need to further consolidate.7 Since then we have increased both school and district size way beyond what the proponents of larger size were suggesting at that time. We now have high schools of 5,000 and districts up to 1 million students.

Big disappointments

These large districts have not brought the envisioned savings financially. "Webb & Ohm (1984) found smaller districts more efficient than larger ones in both dollars per student and numbers of administrators per student...." Antonucci found that there are "penalties of scale." Instead of making up a larger percentage of the budget as school districts size increases, the percentage spent on teachers, books, and teaching materials goes down! He writes, "Paradoxically, the larger a school district gets, the more resources it devotes to secondary or even non-essential activities." McGuire, in a 1989 study found, "As specialization in staff grows, program offerings expand, and administrative personnel increase, problems of coordination and control also increase. And in large systems, time and energy are more likely to be shifted away from core service activities." Antonucci also writes, "And let's not forget the labor implications. Which district is more likely to have difficult contract negotiations or work stoppages? The district with 15 bus drivers, or the one with 677 bus drivers?"

1999 Utah administrative costs per pupil show little difference between large districts and small unless one gets below 1000 students. Below 1000 students the administrative costs go up. (See Figure 1) The three lowest districts in administrative cost per student were Logan with 5,840 students - $181 cost per student (cps), South Sanpete with 2,878 students - $198 cps, and Juab with 1796 students - $207 cps. Alpine with 45,208 is next with $237 cps. In the 2000 legislative audit on class size reduction monies, the smaller districts were better able to account for specific funding than big districts because the big district budgets were so complicated.

Nor have bigger districts necessarily provided better education. Cotton, in her review of 100 research projects observes that, "The states with the largest schools and school districts have the worst achievement, affective, and social outcomes." According to Webb the researchers have fallen into two camps, those who see no advantage for big districts and those who find "...that achievement drops as enrollment levels rise." She states that this is even more evident in lower socio-economic populations,"...there was a strong, consistent negative correlation between district size and student achievement in low-SES populations." Walberg goes even farther to show a direct line, negative relationship of the states with large district size and test results. Jewell states point blank that, "Students in states with smaller districts and smaller schools have higher SAT and ACT scores."

Comparisons with Utah school districts 1997-2000 SAT scores are revealing. (See Figure 2) In both 5th and 8th grade test scores, the smallest districts score highest within their expected range (99% and 74% of expected range). Medium small districts score next highest (65% and 47%), medium size score next (54% & 37%), with the largest districts scoring lowest in their expected range (36% & 32%). 11th grade scores do follow the socio-economic expectations which are upward with district size but this may be because the lower scoring students in bigger districts have dropped out. Larger schools, which are mostly in the larger districts, have higher dropout rates prompting the analysis that while smaller schools are slightly more expensive, the cost per graduate is less in smaller schools.

Big Districts = Big Schools

Very closely tied to the district size issue is the school size issue. What seems to be true with districts has even more research showing it to be true with school size. Cotton and Irmsher in their reviews of over 100 research projects regarding size show conclusively that bigger is not better once schools go beyond a certain size. Irmsher writes, "Michael Klonsky (1995), and Mary Anne Raywid (1995), and others report that large school size hurts attendance and dampens enthusiasm for involvement in school activities. Large schools have lower grade averages and standardized-test scores coupled with higher dropout rates and more problems with violence, security, and drug abuse." She says that with smaller schools, "Security improves and violence decreases, as does student alcohol and drug abuse." Cotton states, "Behavior problems are so much greater in larger schools that any possible virtue of larger size is canceled out be the difficulties of maintaining an orderly learning environment."

Larger schools are not necessarily less expensive either. "Generally, there is agreement that unit costs are higher in the smallest and largest schools. Various studies characterize per-pupil school costs as having a U-shaped average cost curve, where costs are high in both the smallest and largest schools." When cost per graduate is calculated, smaller schools are a better deal.

It appears that district size is probably the most direct cause of school size. Jewell says that large schools are concentrated in large districts. He shows that Utah is 6th in average district size and also 6th in average size of school. This connection makes sense when one considers how school buildings are funded. Buildings are funded through voter approved bonds. When a district is large, administrators find it hard to get positive votes for bonding in areas that do not need the new school. These areas are reluctant to increase their taxes because they don't see the need and won't feel the benefit. Over time some bonds don't pass, forcing administrators to build fewer schools. Those that are built must then be made bigger. To gain voter approval in non-growth areas, administrators then offer additions to existing buildings making them bigger as well. Therefore in big districts both old and new buildings end up bigger.

There may be other reasons that promote larger schools. Patrons needing another school may want everything that was built or installed in the last school built. The booster club may want more enhanced sports facilities, for instance, making it politically necessary to add something to the bond for the older schools to buy voter approval in those areas. This may make the bond bigger than desired and so instead of building two smaller schools that are needed, administrators compromise and build one larger one with all the extras.

Utah's big districts have public perceptions that the other side of the district is getting more benefit than their side. Davis and Alpine's north and south sides and Granite and Jordan's east and west sides have fought each other for years over which direction the tax dollars are flowing. Smaller districts may be more likely to pass bonds because the community as a whole would see the need and feel the benefit. They would not have to fight another community for political power and tax dollars. They would not have to take from another area for their own benefit with the resulting negative feelings. And they might decide that the extras weren't worth the extra taxes.


In areas of high growth, school size continues to grow, seldom reversing itself. One reason may be that the growth also means the district grows and with it, the aforementioned problems. An additional
problem presents itself here for future discussion, how does a district build more or smaller schools on land that already has houses on it? If a school is not built with a new development, the land
for a new school becomes very expensive and usually can only be acquired by condemnation procedures. This makes it politically very difficult and prohibitively expensive to purchase.

Some districts have tried to solve big school problems with the "school within a school" approach. This is an attempt to gain the recognized benefits of smaller size without really becoming smaller and has resulted in some mixed improvement. The idea is to reorganize into two or more smaller groupings within the existing building. "The major challenge to schools within schools," writes Mary Ann Raywid, "has been obtaining sufficient separateness and autonomy to permit staff members to generate a distinctive environment and to carry out their own vision of schooling." In 1996 Howley reported, "If size is a structural phenomenon, however, caution is warranted in approaching the simulation of small size through such mechanisms as "schools-within-schools" and "house plans" (Meier, 1995; Oxley, 1994; Raywid, 1996). In general, despite substantial popularity, research on the effectiveness of simulating small size as a way to restructure is very limited (Raywid, 1996)." Transportation is not alleviated with this model either.

Similarly some big districts have tried to gain the advantages of smaller neighborhood districts using ideas such as subdistricts (Los Angeles School District, 2000), cluster and cone councils that some Utah districts use, or attempting to push more control to local school levels. It is very difficult to really turn over control and responsibility to these groups, however, because they are not legally the entity in charge. They cannot raise revenues or allocate them, and this leaves them as mere arms of the larger organization. "Modern means of decentralizing funding and governance within multi-layered educational organizations - state accountability schemes, school-site management, New York City's community boards, and Chicago's local school councils - have yet to prove their value. Nor have 'home rooms' and 'schools within schools' shown that they can recapture the advantages of small schools." 'Kincaid concluded: 'Virtually all of the factors most associated with academically effective education are school- and neighborhood-based. Yet, we have shifted more control and financing of education to state and national institutions."

Big Conclusions

What does the current state of affairs portent for the future? According to the 1999 Fall Enrollment Report from USOE, 85% of Utah's high school students are in schools that research show are too big. Utah is among the highest in district size. It may not be possible to build smaller schools without creating smaller districts. The current situation is not necessarily less expensive either. Excessive transportation costs and traffic problems resulting from schools that are too big have not been addressed in this report. Utah's smaller districts score better, not because the educators of big districts try less, but because the bureaucracy, which a large district must have for control, ties their hands. It certainly does not engender community spirit toward a common goal in education. Substantial studies show that bigger is not better and that 'bigness' is alienating citizens toward our educational institutions. This cannot help but influence other governmental entities such as the relationships with cities inside these megadistricts.

This alienation is depleting local support, and that will result in increased state controls and diversion of funding for basic instruction into accountability schemes in an attempt to force quality, quality that will become increasingly elusive. Utah's scores seem to have leveled out or are starting to decline. Growth of population is continuing and will result in ever bigger schools and further distance of the districts from the citizens. Back in 1989, Walberg intimated the following as what we could expect as a result of becoming too big. He listed:

• declarations of educational bankruptcy and state appointment of "receiverships" of new boards and central staff;
  
• breaking up large-city districts into free-standing smaller units;
  
• suits by parents for failing to employ state-of-the-art educational practices;
  
• litigation by graduates for fraudulent services and diplomas;
  
• magnet schools and choice plans within and outside districts and the public sector;
  
• and vouchers and tax rebates for private or public tuition.
  

He further wrote, "These schemes are motivated by the desperation of some legislators, business people, citizens, and parents who wish to employ the courts or market-like competition to improve the efficiency of schools, particularly those in large districts, that seem unable to respond constructively to their clients and society."

Most of these consequences we have begun to see coming true, if not in Utah then elsewhere in the country. Of the six, only one has any future for really improving the education of the general public and that is breaking up our large districts. State takeovers would be completed socialism. How could the state possibly run a district better? Suits and litigation tie more red tape around a bureaucracy that is already floundering. Magnet and charter schools are only imitations of what could be found with smaller schools in smaller districts. A charter school is essentially a one-school, new district that has no local tax base. Vouchers and tuition tax-credits, though very enticing to true believers in individual freedoms and responsibilities, will not gain wide-spread voter approval or improve public schools if implemented. They too, will get wrapped up in litigation.
Setting a limit on the size for both districts and schools and creating an orderly way for setting up these new districts, will achieve better academics and a more efficient use of tax dollars long term. It will encourage more participation by both students and citizens. Cities and schools will work together to solve transportation and traffic problems around schools, as well as future development problems. Why? Because only when our noses are pushed into our own messes do we seem to cleanup after ourselves and solve similar problems for the future.


Smaller districts and schools bring the problems and opportunities back to the local level. This spurs innovation, flexibility, and commitment by both parents and teachers. We cannot build students without building parents at the same time, and that builds citizenship as well. Only by creating new, smaller districts will we return liberty and responsibility to the local parents and teachers. Only then will true accountability be accomplished. Only then will true educational quality and efficiency be possible to achieve.

Bibliography:

1. Robert W. Jewell, "School and School District Size Relationships, Costs, Results, Minorities, and Private School Enrollments" Education and Urban Society, 1989 pp. 140-153.
   
2. As one example, BYU's 1999 Poll of The Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools in Utah, by the Department of Educational Leadership, shows a steady increase from 1994's 57% support to pay more taxes to help raise the standard of education in Utah, to 59% in 1997, 62% in 1998, and 64% in 1999. Gallup polls of the 1990's have also confirmed this nationwide.
3. Minutes of Education Interim Committee, Utah Legislature, September 16, 1987.
4. Pipho, C., "Rural Education" Phi Delta Kappan, 1987 pp. 6-7. See also: McGuire, Kent, "School Size, The Continuing Controversy" Education and Urban Society, 1989 p. 173.
5. Antonucci, Mike, "Mission Creep: How Large School Districts Lose Sight of the Objective -- Student Learning" Alexis de Tocqueville Institution Brief #176, November 17, 1999.
6. Conant, J. B., "The American High School Today" Carnegie Series in American Education, 1959.
7. Webb, Florence R., "A District of a Certain Size" Education and Urban Society, 1989 p. 127-128
8. ibid, p. 130.
9. ibid, p. 134-135.
10. Walberg, Herbert J., "On Local Control: Is Bigger Better?" University of Chicago, No. 59 Nov. 22, 1993.
11. Cotton, Kathleen, "School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance" Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Close-Up #20. (http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/10/c020.html)
12. Irmsher, Karen, "School Size" ERIC Digest 113 July 1997. (http://www.library.uluc.edu/schoolreform/sconsol.htm)
13. Walberg, Herbert J., "District Size and Student Learning," Education and Urban Society, 1989 p. 128.
14. K. McGuire, "School Size: The continuing controversy," Education and Urban Society 21 (2, February): 164-174
15. Langdon, Philip, "Students do better in Small Schools so why have we been making schools bigger?," The American Enterprise, January 2000 p. 25.
16. Costs were compiled by taking the total reported administrative costs in each district for 1999 and dividing by the number of students in each district.
17. Raywid, M. A. "Family choice arrangements in public schools: A review of the literature." Review of Educational Research, 55(4), p. 455, (1985).
18. Howley, Craig, "Ongoing Dilemmas of School Size: A Short Story" ERIC Digest, December 1996.